Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance Blog

The December 2016 Edition of The Profit Newsletter, the official newsletter of the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance, is now available for download. There are 48 pages this month full of upcoming meetings, workshops, webcasts, educational articles and other valuable information for your real estate investing pleasure and success. Download it and check it out!

The Profit is Atlanta REIA’s digital, interactive newsletter for serious real estate investors delivered as an Adobe PDF file to read on your PC, Mac, Smart Phone, iPad or other mobile ready devices. Many of the articles and ads in The Profit contain many hyperlinks you can click to get more information online! The high res version of The Profit is “print ready” for those who want to print the newsletter on their home or business printer.

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The internet is full of hidden bargains!  As many as 24% of the real estate market is composed of self-sellers, and you have a 10-23%  chance of finding a property well below market value depending on the seller’s intentions.

Kinds of Properties

There are so many different types of property, its almost like a smorgasbord. It can be a fixer-upper,  foreclosure or just motivated sellers. With a few online strategies and tools, you can tap into the hidden bargains available online. Investors who use the internet wisely can find 100s of real estate deals monthly.

Use the Internet

Why shy away from internet marketing, when there is massive potential and you can get more deals faster than your competitors. Many experienced real estate investors have turned to the internet to find as many real estate deals they can without leaving the office.  Read More→

In the last article, I briefly discussed the beginning of my venture into apartment investing. I encouraged people to do some self-learning before going to networking events so you have a better idea about what is going on. While attending plenty of networking events and having a handful of meetings, I realized that you may have something the person you are looking to for advice wants to learn from you. This works out great because in all my articles I discuss the importance of win-win scenarios.

Let me explain what has happened in my pursuit in learning how to invest in multi-family. First, most multi-family clubs or gurus want you to spend $5,000-$25,000 for them to teach you how to invest in multi-family. The lower end is reasonable but you don’t get much and the higher end is crazy. I’d rather take that money and be a limited partner in an actual deal. Keep in mind I am referring to multifamily with a purchase price of at least 1MM and/or 50+ units. I have participated in much smaller multifamily properties. Luckily, I found some great people that I hope will be able to teach me what I need to learn to be successful. They told me it was not worth investing that much when they were willing to do it in exchange for my time and expertise.  Read More→

When purchasing a property, the Sellers of the property should fill out a Seller Disclosure which tells you about the condition of the property, any repairs made since the date of purchase and any problems that they are aware of on the home.  As an Investor, there are many times I will purchase the home without receiving a Seller Disclosure, and without a home inspection other than my own personal inspection.  However, I highly recommend that Investors obtain a Seller Disclosure and have a formal home inspection even though you are replacing a lot of things inside and outside of the home. 

Recently, a Partner and I were working on purchasing a property from a 4-member limited liability company who had purchased the property at a Tax Sale.  Their Attorney informed us that the members would like to just sell the property and had purchased the property as a Tax Deed.  They started the rehab on the property with the assistance of the Attorney but had not completed it.  Our only contact was with the Attorney, who was a silent partner, and informed us of the following:  That they wanted $48,000 for the property, that they have all new windows for the property that they would give us included in the purchase price, that there was an open roof permit on the property that just needed the facia to be painted to close out the permit and that all the material in the property was also included with the purchase of the property.  We submitted the offer to the Attorney on October 31, 2016 and we still had not heard from him about our offer.  We had called a couple of times reminding the Attorney that our offer was only valid for 2 days and now it was 7 days and still waiting on a response.  Read More→

STOP what you’re doing and read this. I promise that it’s worth it.

You have more power in you than you know. Right now, you have the ability to change someone’s life, starting with your own. And starting now – in this moment – you’re about to learn some secrets that can produce powerful results for you.

The “Big Secret” is this: The words you choose to use every day are vitally important. To you and everyone around you.

Words have power. They have the power to uplift. They have the ability to motivate, to inspire, to elicit emotion. Words can make someone laugh, cry, or smile.

For example: A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Why the long face?” LOL  Read More→

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” ~ Walt Disney

When I first started, I felt like I had no business designing spaces. I’m good at the big picture but putting textures and colors together that will sell the house I was not so confident. I’ve been using Pinterest and Houzz to piece together ‘dream boards’ that you would put together using ripped out magazine pages and taping them together to compose some sort of theme or color scheme.

Pinterest is known as a predominantly female geared platform. People use it to plan events, like weddings, or recipes for special occasions or holidays. It is a great tool to use to plan your decorating scheme for an interior and the exterior. You can easily gather ideas for landscaping, curb appeal, how to style your front door and entry way, from kitchen materials to flooring and bathroom tile. What I like best is that other ‘pinners’ have done most of the work for you already. Most pins that you research are already part of a larger board, and if you visit that board you can see what else that user put together already. It has been easy to use, either hit pin, send or like on the image. Once you click an image it usually leads to the website that sells the item or a blog post about how to do the project. Sometimes it’s just a source image from google, so it is still a good starting point to show a contractor to get the gist of the idea.  Read More→

One of the things I have seen a lot lately is wholesale deals banking on appreciation.  And as a Buyer myself, I can tell you I love appreciation!  Appreciation can cover a multitude of sins.

The problem is they are still sins and as a wholesaler, it is best to be aware of them if you want to move your deals!  When running comps for your Buyer, the safest route is the tried and true MLS.  Not Zillow or Trulia or some of these other online sites that can give snippits of value to the market but the good ol’ MLS.

One key piece to help avoid the appreciation challenge is to simply ensure your comps are current as of today.  Not what you think it will be in three months or six months no matter how hot it is.  Only today.  Why?  It keeps your Buyers safe.  This is very important.  It also keeps your numbers strong for your offers and negotiation so you can make sure you get a deal that makes sense.  Nothing is worse than sitting on a deal you need to move quickly only to find it never had a chance because others did not see the value you saw.  Read More→

Despite the obviously important role information gathering plays in the art of negotiations, very few people actually spend much time analyzing their seller’s situations or needs before jumping into the negotiating process. Even logical individuals who wouldn’t jump into a dangerous sport before learning more about it often jump into a deal where they could possibly lose thousands without first getting the information they needed in order to protect themselves from a disastrous result.

I always remind my students that they need to listen, ask appropriate questions, do their due diligence and determine what the seller’s real underlying needs are. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your sellers in order to get the information you need to make the best deal possible. If you need clarification on some part of the negotiation, ask!

So why are investors so reluctant to ask questions? Part of it is fear and part of it is the unwillingness to admit they don’t know or don’t understand something. It used to cause me a great deal of discomfort to ask certain questions of sellers such as “how much is your mortgage balance?” That one question used to really make me choke. The main reason for this was uncertainty as to how the seller would react to my question. Even when a seller refuses to answer your question, you are still gathering important information about that seller, namely that they are not particularly motivated. Usually a truly motivated seller will answer whatever questions you have.  Read More→

In my business model I need very motivated sellers. They need to be able to have a desire to sell at a reduced price and give me favorable terms. Most Realtors have been trained to only accept a cash deal (mortgage included), as there is no reason to do anything beyond this traditional method, especially if it is complicated financing that they don’t understand. So it is important to figure out how to work with a Realtor.  Here are some tips that I have found to be effective when working with Realtors:

• Work with a Realtor that is accessible and follows through. Some are so busy that it might take too long to be able to communicate with them effectively. 

• Once you are able to talk to the Realtor you will need to get some information: Is the seller motivated? What does the listing say that causes you to believe the seller is motivated? What does the owner owe? Will they consider owner financing? Most Realtors will not ask these questions because it doesn’t change the transaction (I believe they do in my business).

The Realtor’s sole job is to act as a fiduciary. The Realtor’s responsibility is to make the most commission for themselves, which has a benefit of making the maximum for the seller. The Realtor has no risk if either party makes a profit or loss. You see the conflict immediately between a Realtor and the investor. The goal of a Realtor is to get as much earnest money out of you as they possibly can. (Just like a wholesaler). This causes you to follow the money… your money. I was told by a mentor who was willing to walk from $5,000, if you do your due diligence and find the deal will lose more than your earnest money, then walk away. This was a big lesson for me.  Read More→

Last month, we discussed QuickBooks’ report Preferences and The Report Center. We’ll look at report customization this month.

QuickBooks makes your bookkeeping faster, safer, and more accurate than what you could do using a manual system. Still, you may occasionally tire of your daily tasks. You want to know what all of these forms and records mean in terms of your overall financial health. You want to see reports.

The actual mechanics of creating reports in QuickBooks are fairly straightforward. You can go to the Report Center, make a selection, maybe change the date range, and voila! Your company’s related data appears in neat rows and columns.  Read More→

An investor who has owned four rental properties for the past three years called me for help.  He was at his wits’ end.  Because he hated dealing with tenants so much, he was seriously considering dumping all of his rentals!  By the way, this is not an uncommon feeling for new, inexperienced, and under educated landlords to have.

When we met to discuss his situation, he let me hear a recording of a conversation he had had with a tenant a few days prior…and I use the word “conversation” with loosely.

The tenant consistently paid his rent six to ten days late.  This sent the landlord into orbit.  Over the phone, the landlord screamed at the tenant, “You are a liar, an idiot and you’re totally worthless!  Pack your crap and get out of my house right dang now!”  And from there, the landlord’s words really turned foul.  I felt sorry for the tenant and angry with the landlord for losing control.  Read More→